Lands, Peoples and Languages of the Timurid Empire

From Timur’s rise in 1370 to the end of the principal Timurid states in 1507, the dynasty ruled a changing belt of territory across the lands covered in Timurid History and Society, from Central Asia into Iran and Afghanistan. Transoxiana, the historical region between the Amu Darya and Syr Darya rivers, formed its eastern base. Khorasan, a broad region whose boundaries shifted over time, linked cities such as Herat, Mashhad and Balkh with Iranian lands farther west. These names describe medieval regions, not fixed modern borders: Herat is now in Afghanistan, Samarkand in Uzbekistan, and Khorasan extended across parts of present-day Iran and Afghanistan.

Oases, rivers and pasture

The Fergana Valley, in eastern Transoxiana and now divided among Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, shows how water and terrain shaped settlement. In an account of the valley around 1494, Timurid prince and memoirist Babur describes mountains on three sides, leaving the western approach toward Khujand and Samarkand as the main open route. The Syr Darya crossed the valley, and its towns combined fortified centres with cultivated land. Babur reports that Andijan produced grain and fruit; water entered its fort through nine channels. He also praises the running water around Osh, southeast of Andijan.

Fields and herds supported the same regional economy. Irrigation canals brought water to fields, while ditches drained excess water and helped wash salts from flooded ground. Rain-fed farming was also practiced, though irrigated land was more productive and valuable. Herding, or pastoralism, supplied livestock and horses, including horses bred for export. As a western counterpart to Fergana, Herat’s court became a major centre under Shah Rukh; under Sultan Husayn Bayqara in the late fifteenth century, it grew into the period’s leading Timurid capital, eclipsing Samarkand.

Different communities and forced movement

Timurid territory included farmers in irrigated villages, residents of market towns, and pastoral groups who moved with their herds. Those communities met through exchange and through military service, but conquest also moved people by force. Timur sent selected nomadic groups to help defend frontier zones and transferred settled populations to Samarkand. After retaking Tabriz in 1386, he sent scholars, artisans and craftspeople east to the capital; in 1411, his grandson Ulugh Beg issued a decree allowing Muslim captives whom Timur had resettled there to return home.

In Samarkand, transferred craftspeople worked on new buildings, and nearby villages bore names such as Shiraz and Damascus, reflecting the origins of some people moved there.

Persian, Turkic and Arabic in use

Persian court historiography and poetry circulated across the Timurid lands; histories produced in Khorasan and Transoxiana were read beyond those regions. Turkic also had a spoken and written life at court. During the fifteenth century, literary use of Chaghatay, a Turkic literary language, expanded, especially in poetry. Ali-Shir Nava’i wrote in both Chaghatay and Persian; Babur later composed his memoirs in Turkic. A 1398 Uigur-Turkic decree by prince Miran Shah carried a Persian summary.

Babur writes that people in Andijan’s town and bazaar knew Turkic; he says Nava’i’s written language matched local speech, although Nava’i grew up at Herat. Arabic also served learned work. At Samarkand, mathematician and astronomer Jamshid al-Kashi worked in Ulugh Beg’s scholarly circle; major astronomical works in his period’s technical tradition were written in Arabic.